"We live... in a world where illusions are sacred and truth profane."

[scarletwoman]

This is such a great quote I just had to post it. I have little to add because I think it says it all.

Here's the article (about the upcoming UK elections) it comes from:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1446019,00.html

This is the paragraph:

The cost of the Iraqi adventure was heavy. According to a team of medical investigators sent by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians died. Torture, encouraged from above, became a fact of life. Perhaps some good liberal apologist for Blair will soon explain how democratic torture is much nicer than authoritarian torture. Perhaps the belligerati could take this further. Ian McEwan's next novel could sensitively depict dilemmas of a liberal torturer faced with the barbaric Orient. Why not? We live, after all, in a world where illusions are sacred and truth profane.

Anyway, I read that last sentence and just thought "wow", that's IT! Everything that's going on; the attacks on science, the intolerant nationalism ("disstenters are traitors"), the whole bush/rove propaganda machine, the lapdog media, the rise of fundamentalism... Everything...

Illusions are sacred and the truth is profane.

sw

[kaitykaity]

1. Cool quote.

If I didn't already love my sig, I'd sure steal it.

[senseandsensibility]

2. If that is true in Britain

it is doubly true here. Thanks for posting.

[scarletwoman]

5. It's the Unified Field Quote -- equally applies to any & all aspects

of the current state of Life As We Know It.

sw

[Kerrytravelers]

3. We live in a world where illusions are sacred and truth profane.

So true. And so sad.

[BillZBubb]

4. Wow, great quotation! Sums up the situation completely.

Too many are blindly clinging to their illusions. Anyone telling the truth is a "liberal" or un-American.

[scarletwoman]

6. Thank you. My take exactly: "Sums up the situation completely" (n/t)

[dbeach]

7. The power elites want this Illusion to control the masses

and maintain their criminal enterprises.

Truth is freedom but most would prefer to take the red pill and continue the Illusion.

I have my own version of Truth which may not coincide with others BUT yet may arrive at the right moment to undo this Illusion which binds the masses.

NEVER trusted the govt since the 60s .
ask many VN Veterans..first lesson learned is govt lies.

Wonderful quote!

Freedom and Ignorance cannot mutually co-exist.

[acmejack]

16. Vn & the truth

Hard to conceptualize those two terms i the same breath. Until 1970, I believed in my government...

[dbeach]

22. No More!For sure!

King George Bush the second = KGB II

[housewolf]

8. I'm stealing this for my sig...

Rarely does a statement ring SO TRUE to me as that quote. This author has hit the nail on the head.

Here's another good one:
"Perhaps some good liberal apologist for Blair will soon explain how democratic torture is much nicer than authoritarian torture. "

I'll have to start paying attention to this writer.

Thanks for the post.

[scarletwoman]

11. I hope you'll be sure to include the attribution to the author, Tariq Ali.

He really HAS "hit the nail on the head". Those words far transcend the context of that particular article, imho.

sw

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. If you like his writing, there's a lot on Counterpunch

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=+site%3Acounterpunch.org+%22tariq+ali%22+&btnG=Search&meta=

[sandnsea]

9. Yep, Masters of Ilusion

Illusion of democracy and freedom. Illusion of caring for the vulnerable. Illusion of protecting the constitution. Illusion of faith. All of it, one masterfully crafted illusion.

[Javaman]

10. "Pffft, you can prove anything with facts."

Homer Simpson

[Daphne08]

12. We live, after all, in a world where illusions are sacred and truth profan

Very Orwellian.

[glitch]

13. Thanks for posting. Tariq Ali is a wonderful writer, speaker and thinker

Belligerati, what a great word. This site has several mp3s of his talks
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=search&nav=&session=&searchtext=tariq+ali&submit=submit

[Beam Me Up]

14. In a time of universal deceit,

telling the truth is a revolutionary act. --George Orwell

[KlatooBNikto]

17. To go along with this idea I also liked Bill Moyers' statement:

THE DELUSIONAL IS NO LONGER THE MARGINAL.

[Disturbed]

18. "The Clash of Fundamentalisms"

Tariq Ali

It's a great book.

[KlatooBNikto]

19. I have read an excerpt before.I think it was excerpted on the

Counterpunch website.I agree it is full of great insights.

To me this descent into the irrational and delusional state of mind is intentionally created by those who believe that the Untermenschen of the world are seeking a seat at the table of power which has been traditionally occupied by Western nations. In the U.S. which, according to these people, is in an advanced state of decay because the blacks, jews, hispanics, Chinese and other Asians are clamoring for power has to take immediate steps first, followed by Britain and other European nations. That is the driving force for the disinformation program unleashed by Rumsfeld. Because an overt program will meet massive resistance it has to appear rational and this is where the Terror War comes in handy.

[Al-CIAda]

20. Video clip Tim Ryan- Liars, liars, liars...

Congressman Ryan tells it like it is:

http://www.willthomas.net/Video/Tim-Ryan-Congressman.mov

[sendero]

21. WOW...

... now that is what I'm talking about!

We need 50 more of this guy and 50 less of the pink-tutu, hand-wringing, nuanced milquetoasts we've got now.

[knabb]

23. It's actually a quote from Feuerbach

"But for the present age, which prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, representation to reality, appearance to essence . . . truth is considered profane, and only illusion is sacred. Sacredness is in fact held to be enhanced in proportion as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the highest degree of illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness." (Ludwig Feuerbach, "The Essence of Christianity", 1841)

Guy Debord used that quote as an epigram to his book "The Society of the Spectacle" -- http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/1.htm

[scarletwoman]

25. Thank you so very much for the additional info!

I had never heard of Feuerbach, but apparently Tariq Ali has. I got busy with google as soon as I read your post -- much to ponder and educate myself about.

I'm so glad you posted on my little thread, thank you! And welcome to DU! :hi:

sw

[knabb]

26. Feuerbach

Tariq Ali may have read Feuerbach, but it's more likely that he came across the quote while reading Debord's book.

Feuerbach is the radical German philosopher whom Marx discussed in his "Theses on Feuerbach", which conclude with the famous words: "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it."

[scarletwoman]

27. I found your link to Debord fascinating as well.

Since I am quite ignorant in regard to Tariq Ali's influences, I cannot argue your point.

I suppose I am a bad leftist in that I have never studied Marx -- nor much in the way of ANY Western philosophy beyond a single college course in Existentialism way back in 1968. I moved into the study of Eastern philosophy and never looked back.

In any case, I feel quite unqualified to say anything more than that I appreciate very much knowing the antecedent of the quote in my original post. It is a powerful and, in my humble opinion, a very true and trenchant statement about the current state of affairs.

Thank you again for bringing more information to this discussion.

sw

[ultraist]

29. welcome knabb!

:hi:

[manic expression]

24. Wow

That sums up and explains everything that is going on in our world right now.

[PassingFair]

28. Thank you for the quote, Scar!

It sums up the way I'm feeling tonight. All day. All week, in fact!

[Tace]

30. kick